Willem Sandberg – Portrait of an Artist – Chapter 6
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Willem Sandberg – Portrait of an Artist – Chapter 6 ARTIST ORGANISATION AND RESISTANCE It wasn’t until 1932 that I stuck my head in the life of the Dutch artists organisation. I received a request at that time to become a member of VANK, the Vereiniging voor Ambachts- en Nijverheidskunst – the Association for Trade and Industry Art. I had never heard of the VANK, but I became a member. At a certain moment, I was even an active member and held administrative offices, including a seat in the Committee for non- permanent exhibitions in the Stedelijk Museum – for VANK members and others – and in the Exhibition Committee for the Dutch department at the World Exhibition in Paris. The Chairman of the VANK was Jean-François van Royen, a master typographer and, as we always said, in his spare time secretary-general of the PTT. He was owner of the Cunera Press and that was his real work. This man had, between the two great wars, a positive influence on the whole artist community, the life of the artist association and the position of the artist. First, he had a lot of work to award via the Postal services: for designing postcards or stamps, fitting out post-offices, designing letter boxes and so on. But he extended his influence far beyond this. He had, together with his friend , the architect De Bie Leuvelink Tjeenk, a great influence on the artist association life in this country. Tjeenk was, at the time that I knew him, Chairman of the BNA, the Bond voor Nederlandse Architecten [Association for Dutch Architects]. The buildings he designed included the Jaarbeurs Building in Utrecht, that was pulled down about ten years ago – but his best work was perhaps the De Zwijger warehouse on the harbour of Amsterdam. He and Van Royen founded the Exhibition Board for Construction and Allied Arts. This included the architect associations BNA and Architectura et Amicitiae, plus the Circle of Sculptors, the VANK and perhaps something else. The Exhibition Board developed many initiatives and had a firm hand in all sorts of matters undertaken by the government. I remember that the Dutch entry for the World Exhibition in 1925 in Paris was mounted completely by the Board. And so too was the Dutch participation at the World Exhibition of 1937 in Paris. In 1925, Van Royen was secretary-general of the Dutch department and in 1937, Tjeenk held that position. I was one of Tjeenk’s close associates and experienced first hand what took place and how you put such a pavilion together. That was, naturally enough, not simple. You had all sorts of committees that interfered. I remember that one of those had, for some inexplicable reason, commissioned an artist to make a mosaic. It was an awful thing and I didn’t want to exhibit it. But it was commissioned nonetheless. Well, I dropped it and it broke. I have always been rather radical. I forget the name, but that thing wasn’t exhibited. I’d like delve deeper into my association with the organisation of the Dutch entry, because that is the one and only time that I ever become a strike leader. In 1937-38, preparations were under way for the Dutch Pavilion at the World Exhibition in New York in 1939. Mr. De Graeff, former governor-general of Indonesia, was appointed Commissioner and he had a friend. That was professor Slothouwer, who built the Grote Club near the Dam, but was largely recommended because he had made such a good job of the restoration of the Dom in Utrecht. De Graeff wanted to grant him the commission to build the Dutch Pavilion. Then we all said: Hey, hold your horses, this is not how things are done in the Netherlands; in Indonesia, perhaps, but not here. We will have to take a careful look at whether we are really getting the best architect for such a Dutch calling card in New York. And then we finally agreed that a multiple commission would be granted to seven architects. The names I remember are: Wijdeveld, Dudok, Van Ravesteyn and Stam. Others were of course involved, but I don’t remember them anymore. The best design was the design by Mart Stam. It was, indeed, a fantastic pavilion, but it was never built. The commissioner-general put great store on granting the commission to the one that came in seventh – namely Slothouwer. It turned into a pretty heated meeting. In the meantime, De Graeff had appointed a number of former Indonesian civil servants to the committee and they listened to the former boss. So in the meeting, he gained the majority for Slothouwer. I stood up and left. Then, in the Board for Construction and Allied Arts, we deliberated on what we should do and we organised a strike among Dutch artists against this pavilion. The artists who had already received a commission were allowed to carry it out, but all the others were not allowed to accept any assignment for this pavilion. The strike was a fantastic success. I believe there was only one blackleg. Later, during the war, it turned out he belonged to the NSB1. Otherwise, everybody kept their word. The Dutch Pavilion was really awful and the interior was little better. But the strike involved a whole lot of preparation and organisation. Chairman Van Royen was on holiday at the time. I was vice-chairman, so I had to lead the strike. That was very enjoyable, what with the press conferences and so on. The commissioner-general also gave press conferences with his side of the story. It caused a whole lot of work. I am very pleased that we were able for the very first time to test the solidarity of the Dutch artists. That must have been in 1938-1939. The exhibition was held in 1939. Very soon after that, the occupation took place, and other issues arose that were also about artist solidarity. Van Royen – who had an enormous talent for organisation and a special love for artists – had, in addition to the Exhibition Board for Construction and Allied Arts, also tried to involve the painters in one general organisation for Dutch artists, the Central Committee. And that, naturally enough, was difficult. There were a lot of associations for painters but he got them together in that organisation and went a long way by getting the painters together because of their profession and not because of the direction of their art. The associations were specially based on the various directions in painting. I believe that most of the meetings took place in Pulchri Studio. It was a nice organisation and there was a pleasant mood among the people who participated. I think there were around thirty representatives. The Central Committee worked well until the invasion took place. Then Van Royen reached the conclusion that it was time to make a far more solid organisation of all Dutch artists. Actually against the Germans, but he couldn’t say that out loud. That would be the Nederlandse Organisatie van Kunstenaars [the Dutch Organisation of Artists], the NOK. There was a lot of resistance to the NOK, including from me. The Germans were already threatening to set up a Culture Chamber here and we thought that, if we set up such an organisation, they would get their hands on everything in one go. So there were two sides: one to bring everything together in the spirit of resistance to the occupier and one not to 1 The National Socialist Movement – the Dutch party that supported the Nazis during the war. play into the Germans’ hands with one organisation so that they could more easily set up their Culture Chamber. The majority of Dutch artists were opposed to it. I remember that in December 1940, there was a meeting in Pulchri of those thirty representatives. At the time, people had just received a brochure through their letter-boxes from Hein van Essen. He was a dance critic and I believe his wife was a dancer. The brochure that he had written was all ‘Blut und Boden’. It was a real Nazi brochure and it was sent to us by our own organisations. I got mine from VANK, in a VANK envelope. At the meeting, we protested virulently that we received such trash from our organisations. Van Royen tried to defend that by saying that he also had to let the other side have their say. We were not at all happy about that and at a given moment in the debate I said that I felt more for the race of Christ than for Christians of the Race. Huib Luns, who was sitting next to me, patted me on the shoulder and said: Chum, let’s get out of here. And so we stood up and left. That was the last meeting I attended of this organisation. It certainly caused a certain distancing between Van Royen and me, until a year later – the end of 1941 – he came to me and said: I’ve come to the conclusion that it would be better to disband everything. I’m travelling around the country in order to disband all the organisations so as not to play into the hands of the Germans. The Germans had set up the Culture Chamber in November 1941, and had made it obligatory for the artists who wanted to exhibit their work, for writers who wanted to publish something or for musicians who wanted to perform something in public and for the actors etcetera. The whole action actually lumped all the artists who wanted to resist together and from that the artists’ resistance was born.